Experimental Investigation of Laser Power Effect on Growth Rate of Intermetallic Compound in Al/Cu Bimetal Produced by Laser Cladding Method

Abstract

The aim of this project is to fabricated an aluminium-copper bimetal through the fusion method and examine its performance. An aluminium-copper-aluminium bimetal was built by the laser cladding method. The laser power as well as the annealing time effects on its interfacial properties of the bonding’s formed through the laser cladding were investigated. To fabricate the multilayer bimetal, the laser beam characteristic including the beam radios, and Transverse Electromagnetic Mode (TEM), and focusing conditions were considered in a heat source model. The model was, next, integrated within SYSWELD package to predict the temperature distribution and clad bead profile during the laser cladding of the pre-placed copper powder layer on the aluminium substrate. After the samples preparation, the intermetallic compounds formed at the joints were explored through the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) processes. Based on the experimental results, a laser power increase from 1100 W to 1150 W increases the intermetallic compound width, while an increase of 1150 W to 1200 W does not have much effect on the width. Also, increasing the annealing time results, increases the intermetallic compound thickness. In addition, based on obtained experimental results, four specimens are detected at the bimetal interface, one of which has 73.4 % copper and 26.1 % aluminium. The results also indicate that, with increasing both the laser power and annealing time, the electrical resistance of the samples decrease.